CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING: BOLSTER YOUR IMAGE
BOLSTER IMAGE WITH PROSPECTS AND CUSTOMERS
Pepsi Cola spends millions of dollars on television advertising to burn that image into the minds of soda-drinking consumers. Of course, there is no real link between a pop superstar and the soda pop. But Pepsi, like many other advertisers, has bathed its product in the reflected light of its star spokespeople.
You can create similar equations in the minds of prospects and clients by linking your agency's name to a good cause. Cause-related marketing is good citizenship and good business.
Consumers are growing increasingly tired of hype and hard sell. We are all exposed to an enormous number of advertising messages every day. To keep our sanity, we have to tune out 99% of them. Most advertisements and direct mail tout a better price or superior service. Obviously, not everyone can have the best price or service, so consumers have learned to ignore these claims.
A different, fresh approach has a better chance of catching your audience's attention. Attaching your agency or company to a good cause can do just that. This strategy can also begin to make a dent in rehabilitating our industry's battered image.
Innovative marketers in other industries have used cause-related marketing successfully. Their stories provide some valuable lessons for insurance marketers.
The Body Shop
A cosmetic store that doesn't advertise or use fancy packaging sounds as if it would be doomed to failure. Yet The Body Shop, based in , is the world's hottest cosmetics chain. It doesn't spend a penny on advertising or pretty packages. The company sells natural soaps, scents, lotions, and shampoos in more than 300 stores around the world, including the . It sells its products largely by providing information to consumers. Every container explains the ingredients and their benefits.
The Body Shop has established a fine reputation by supporting a number of social causes. Environmental protection is one, including a lobbying campaign to protect the Brazilian rain forests and their inhabitants. In addition, all franchises are expected to get involved in community projects, such as battered women's shelters or AIDS programs. These causes appeal to the stores' customers, who are primarily of the socially aware baby-boom generation.
Participation in such causes gives The Body Shop millions of dollars worth of free publicity. But publicity isn't the main goal. The company's president and employees truly believe in the causes; the company shows its support by having employees participate during paid working hours.
Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream Company is another cause-related marketer. The company gives 7.5% of its profits to its own foundation, and donates ice cream to food banks. A portion of profits from one product goes directly to preserve rain forests. Media coverage of the company's unusual social policies has boosted public awareness.
Agents and companies can and have adopted similar programs. While rain forests, AIDS, or homeless shelters may not be your favorite causes, there are plenty of other worthy efforts to which your company can devote its time and money.
Fire safety, for example, is a natural for the insurance industry. No one can disagree that it's a worthwhile cause. Fire continues to exact a terrible toll. Statistics show that at least one American is killed in a fire every hour, and that fire kills more children than any other cause.
Marketing fire safety isn't new. Still, it's possible to do something that's innovative, low-cost, and effective. We recommend that agents send letters providing free 'Tot Finders' to their customers. The Tot Finder is a reflective sticker that's applied to the window of a child's bedroom. The stickers reflect firefighters' flashlights and signal where children are likely to be sleeping. It doesn't cost much to send several hundred Tot Finders, and it shows that the agency is concerned about its customers' and prospects' welfare.
Another 'cause' could be promoting smoke detectors-one of the greatest inventions of recent times. But the best smoke detector is useless with a dead battery. How about sending your VIP customers letters or birthday cards, including a fresh smoke-detector battery? It's a simple, inexpensive gesture that shows a caring attitude. And it might save a life or a building someday.
Smoke Detectors
Two years ago, New York state passed a law requiring smoke detectors in all homes. Israel Streger Insurance of New Rochelle saw a marketing opportunity. First, the agency sent all its Homeowner-insurance customers a letter advising them of the new law. Then it sent a similar letter to its Commercial Lines customers, which stated, 'We think you may want to advise your employees of this change, as a safety factor and for a reduction in their Homeowners premiums.'
Employees could take a copy of the letter to a local home-equipment store and receive a discount on smoke detectors. The store sold about 200 detectors. Many people also bought other safety equipment, such as deadbolts and fire extinguishers, making their properties better risks.
Other Homeowner customers had not notified the agency that they had already bought smoke detectors.
The letter put the agency's name before many potential customers in town. Israel Streger performed a real public service and boosted its public image at the same time.
Ecology And Insurance
Environmental causes can also bolster the image of an agency. But how can you make a connection between ecology and insurance?
Simple. It's everyone's business to protect the Earth, including the insurance industry, which protects the financial health of families and business.
50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth is currently a best-selling paperback. Boen & Associates insurance agency in Sioux Falls, South Dakota , is radio-advertising the availability of free copies of the book to clients.
The initial response has been encouraging, according to Scott Tillema, office manager. 'It's an excellent way to get your name before the public without a sales commercial,' he said.
Boen & Associates devotes 20% of its $900-a-month radio-advertising budget to public-service advertising. Some commercials feature community activities such as arts festivals. Other commercials offer safety tips. At the end of each, the agency is identified.
The public service announcements highlight the agency's public spirit. And you'd better believe that most people will pay more attention to an ad about a free concert than one selling insurance.
Fireman's Fund
Insurance companies can also use good causes as marketing and public relations tools. One forward-looking company doing this is Fireman's Fund. They not only sponsor worthwhile activities, but, just as important, they let the world know about it.
Insurance companies are associated with disasters: fires, floods, thefts, illness, and death. To counteract the doom-and-gloom image, Fireman's has an advertising campaign headlined 'Good News.' One of the ads features 'Safetyville, ' in Sacramento , CA. Partly sponsored by Fireman's Fund, this scale village comes complete with streets, sidewalks, traffic signals, homes, and buildings. School children come to Safetyville to learn to cross streets and ride bikes safely, report fires on the 911 number, and avoid possible molestation.
Cause-related marketing isn't brand-new. It's a proven technique. Hitching your wagon to a good cause can pull your marketing effort a long way, and make you and your employees feel good at the same time.